Rock solid Kilconor has room for a family upgrade

IN its heyday, just half a century ago, Kilconor would have been up there with the best of Bishopstown’s new homes.

It is still rock solid, but given that it stands in the middle of its prime c. one acre of gardens, it is likely to be flattened. Does it have to be?

This large (but initially uninspiring from the outside), family home at the end of Bishopstown Avenue has 3,200 sq ft of living space, with five big bedrooms, so it really should be adequate for almost any family if suitably upgraded. Its layout could be profitably copied even by today’s builders as it has big family rooms and quite grand proportions, and an airy hall, stairs and landing to go with it all.

But its acre — just revealed in its suburban enormity by a man with chainsaw and slashhook who has cut back the garden, but fortunately left most of the mature boundary trees and copper beeches by the gate — means instant privacy.

That surrounding land, at the back door to Cork University Hospital, is an 18 carat gold address, ideal for one whopper of a house, for several, perhaps for a developer’s higher density aspiration, (the neighbours will fight it tooth and nail,) or even some medical related uses, subject to planning.

As it stands the CUH campus is virtually next door, and the CUH surrounds are set to intensify density in every way, with traffic the overarching bugbear, particularly on the Wilton side.

Kilconor is a good house, home for years to the Constant family, and is now being sold as an executor sale. The family clearly had a fascinating past, evidenced alone by a French Legion d’Honneur citation, signed by Francoise Mitterrand in 1994, commemorating Victor Constant’s role as a Royal Engineer in the 1944 Normandy landings.

It is a testament to the 1960s, with banquette seating in the blue formica (it looks like mock denim) kitchen. The porch has a mosaic tiled floor, in blue, while keeping with the colour theme the two first floor bathroom suites are also blue, as is the tiling, and baths are sturdy cast iron, great quality. They just don’t have jacuzzi jets.

Even if Kilconor were to one side of its grounds it would surely be kept and modernised. It is a fine example of the optimistic and forward-looking 1960s, down to its furniture. However, it is likely to be standing in the way of even grander ambitions.

One of the last sales here in here was a detached house in move-in condition, Firdoshi, which sold during 2007 for around €1.4 million. Kilconor, with road frontage on two sides of its square acre, has a €1.3 million asking price with agent Timothy Sullivan.